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ODRAZ B92, Belgrade Daily News Service
Odraz B92 vesti (by 10 PM), December 19, 1996
e-mail: beograd@siicom.com URL: http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/
odrazb92@b92.opennet.org http://www.siicom.com/b92/
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All texts are Copyright 1996 Radio B92. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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NEWS BY 10 PM
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MELISSA FLEMMING, OSCE
Melissa Flemming, spokesperson for the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), officially confirmed today that
Felipe Gonzales will act as the special OSCE representative to
Belgrade. He will be accompanied by a delegation made up of
representatives of several countries including Russia, the US, and
EU member states as well. Constitutional law experts will also
join the international team. Flemming announced that if everything
goes according to schedule, the OSCE delegation should arrive in
Belgrade tomorrow night and stay until Sunday. ``I think our team
will not need much time to reach its conclusions,'' said Flemming.
Since FR Yugoslavia's membership in the OSCE was suspended in
1992, all the OSCE delegation can do is propose solutions. If the
Serbian authorities decide to call for new elections, the OSCE
will offer help in monitoring the voting. Flemming said OSCE will
back any decision by the authorities as long as it is based on its
recommendations.
BELGRADE: ST. NICHOLAS' DAY CELEBRATED BY 250,000
The 30th consecutive day of protests against the nullification of
electoral results in Belgrade was at once the most massive and
most festive so far. It was dedicated to St. Nicholas, whose feast
day, one of the most important religious holidays in the country,
is being celebrated all across Serbia today. St. Nicholas Day also
happens to be the family saint's day of two of the leaders of
Zajedno: Zoran Djindjic and Vuk Draskovic.
At the head of the quarter of a million demonstrators who came out
into the streets today walked a line of men carrying feast cakes
and festivity candles. Many of the 250,000 protesters carried
icons of St. Nicholas. The marching demonstrators jeered when
passing by the Serbian Parliament, the presidency building and the
Russian Cultural Center. In contrast, they joyously saluted the
thousands of citizens who stood on their balconies with candles
and festivity cakes. The cheering seemed loudest as the
demonstrators passed by Belgrade's main Maternity Hospital, the
city's Cathedral, and the French Embassy. Zajedno leaders
addressed today's protest with calls to unity and reconciliation,
emphasizing however that one of the ten commandments reads ``Thou
shalt not steal.''
``A family's saint's day commemorates the day on which a family
entered Orthodox Christianity. This celebration of ours represents
the big family of Serbia entering democracy,'' said leader of the
Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic. Coalition Zajedno called on
Belgraders to continue their protest against the nullification of
the local electoral results tomorrow at 3 p.m...
ST. NICHOLAS' DAY IN NIS
The protest meeting of Zajedno supporters and citizens of Nis
gathered today in front of St. Nicholas' Church in honor of the
festivity dedicated to this saint. The meeting began at the city's
central square, where Zajedno's questions to the Nis Electoral
Commission were read out to the demonstrators. The gathered also
heard the announcement by the managing board of the union of the
Nis Health Center, demanding that Mile Ilic, former leader of the
ruling SPS party in Nis, be removed from office as the president
of the managing board of this institution for his participation in
the electoral fraud. The demonstrators were also joined by the
taxi drivers of Nis as well as by UofN students, who joined the
festivity in front of St. Nicholas' Church after their own protest
march.
SPS MEETING IN SABAC FAILED
The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) attempted to organize a
meeting in support of President Milosevic in Sabac today, as they
did in Gornji Milanovac and Krusevac. The ruling party had buses
lined up to bring in its sympathizers from other cities. Citizens
of Sabac, who noted the arrival of buses bearing registration
plates of other cities, spontaneously gathered at the place
designated for the SPS meeting. They demanded to know what this
meeting was about, for they had been informed about ``some
visitors'' arriving from other cities. The organizers, dumbfounded
by the response of the Sabac people and the numbers in which they
came out, gave up their meeting after 15 minutes and withdrew to
their places of residence, reports Zajedno Electoral Headquarters.
DJUKIC: SITUATION IN SERBIA INTERNATIONALIZED BY MILOSEVIC
``The situation in Serbia was internationalized by Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic rather than by the coalition Zajedno,
for it was he who invited the OSCE mission to come to Belgrade,''
said Ilija Djukic, chairman of the foreign policy board of the
Democratic Party (DS), at a press conference today. Vojin
Dimitrijevic, chairman of the foreign policy board of the Civil
Alliance of Serbia (GSS), picked up on his colleague's statements
and said that the world community has understood that Zajedno were
a capable political force and that the question of whether there
was a credible alternative to the present regime in Serbia has
been cleared up by now. ``The world supports our strength and
believes that Zajedno can fulfill the commitments, especially
those in foreign policy, made by the outgoing Serbian regime,'' he
said.
MIHALJ KERTES ANNOUNCED ARRIVAL OF SUPPORTERS
The state-owned RTS television reported tonight that meetings in
support of President Slobodan Milosevic were held today on what
were described as the crowded squares of Backa Palanka, Sabac, Pec
and Krusevac. The state television showed banners saying ``Down
With the Traitors,'' ``Serbia Decides for Itself,'' ``Stop the
Misuse of Children,'' ``We Won't Sell Out on Serbia.'' The
harshest message was sent out by Mihalj Kertes, one of Milosevic's
closest associates, and organizer of the so-called ``people's
awakening'' in the late 1980's and Milosevic's famous ``yogurt
revolution.'' He called the leaders of Zajedno traitors and said
that Milosevic's supporters knew how to marathon-walk as well,
promising to organize their arrival in Belgrade if the leaders and
supporters of Zajedno do not stop their street demonstrations and
return to their ``proper place.''
PROTEST '96 ON MTV
Today, at their 26th consecutive protest march, students of UofB
held a video shoot for MTV. Protests in the streets of Belgrade
will continue tomorrow. Spokesman of the Steering Board of the
Student Protest '96, Dusan Vasiljevic announced that tomorrow the
students will block the traffic on all three bridges leading to
New Belgrade from 14:00 to 14:30. He also called on Belgraders to
follow their suit and block the streets they live on during the
same half hour period.
Prepared by: Aleksandra Scepanovic
Edited by: Vaska Andjelkovic (Tumir)
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ODRAZ B92, Belgrade Daily News Service
e-mail: beograd@siicom.com URL: http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/
odrazb92@b92.opennet.org http://www.siicom.com/b92/
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